Specialist napkin folding, novelty cake baking and flambeing were among the categories in which Edinburgh students triumphed at this year’s ScotHot Awards, which celebrate the next generation of hospitality, tourism and catering professionals.

Students from Edinburgh College scooped several gold awards in the modern apprenticeship junior skills challenge. They also won silver for their novelty cake baking and flambeing and a string of bronze awards in specialist napkin folding.

The Masterchef-style Future Talent Restaurant Competition was yet another success, with a group of students winning bronze for the dishes they created and served to some of the best-known figures in hospitality.

Hospitality student Richard Lewis, 20, cooked a pigeon starter for the judges and said it was a “great achievement” to win bronze. It could “only be good for job prospects in the future to say we have been a part of this award- winning team,” he said.

Fellow hospitality student Martyna Milewska, 18, who was part of the front-of-house team, said she got to meet managers of top hotels and restaurants in Edinburgh, and being part of the competition was “an amazing opportunity”.

Stephen Lindsay, head chef of the eh15 training restaurant at Edinburgh College, said: “The hospitality and culinary team really triumphed on the night. It’s a great achievement for our students to compete against the very best in the country and come out on top.”

Students from the East Lothian Hospitality and Tourism Academy, a partnership between Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh College and East Lothian Council, which aims to provide 16- to 18-year-olds with a seamless transition into training or the industry, also managed to claim bronze awards in the restaurant flambe class, despite being up against older, more experienced competition.